Krikor Peshtimaldjian

Krikor Peshtimaldjian (Armenian: Գրիգոր Փեշտիմալջյան, Born Constantinople, Ottoman Turkey 1778 - died Constantinople, Ottoman Turkey January, 1839) was a prominent ethnic Armenian philosopher, educator, translator, and linguist.^[1] He was a key figure in the Armenian reawakening and reformist movement in the 19th century.^[2]

Life

Krikor Peshtimadjian was born in Constantinople and devoted his entire life to writing and teaching.^[1] He became the principal of the Bezciyan Armenian School, where he also taught language, rhetoric, philosophy, and religion. In 1828, soon after the establishment of the religious school attached to the Patriarchate of Kum Kapi, he was appointed head teacher and chief administrator there.^[1][3] He taught at an Armenian seminary in Haskoy and worked as a private tutor to a bankers family.^[4] As an educator, he worked on textbooks and curriculum organization and wrote regulations for discipline in the school and the fair treatment of all students.

Works

Early in his life he started to compile a dictionary of Classical Armenian, intended to comprise two volumes, but the project was discontinued.^[1]

He lived at a time when the Armenian intelligentsia were actively engaged in sharp disputes about classical versus the more vernacular modern Armenian. In 1829 he published Kraganutyun Haykazian Lezvi (A Grammar of the Armenian Language), in essence a grammar of Classical Armenian. His Tramabnutiun Gam Arvest Banakan (Logic, or the Art of Reason), a philosophical treatise, is also in Classical Armenian.^[1] Yet his other works, such as Krtutiun Kaghakavarutyun (Education in Civility) and Lusashavigh (The Path of Enlightenment), are written in a very clear modern Armenian.^[1] Peshtimaldjian's works reflect the crucially important transition in Armenian letters during the early 19th century.

He also taught, and wrote on, philosophical topics, tending to adhere to the European philosophers of the Age of Reason. Although he was a layman, his knowledge in matters of religion and theology far exceeded that of most clerics.^[1] Living at a time when several schismatic movements arose, he came forward as a staunch defender of the Armenian Apostolic Church, her doctrines, and her traditions, attempting to preserve the national and religious unity of the Armenian community.^[1]

References

1. J. Hacikyan, Agop (2005). The Heritage of Armenian Literature From The Eighteenth Century To Modern Times. Detroit: Wayne State Univ Pr. pp. 189–190. ISBN 9780814332214. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
2. Arpee, Leon (1909). The Armenian awakening: a history of the Armenian church, 1820-1860. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3. Leon, Arpee (1946). A century of Armenian Protestantism, 1846-1946. The Armenian missionary association of America, inc. p. 96.
4. Shenk, Wilbert R. (2004). North American foreign missions : 1810 - 1914 : theology, theory, and policy. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans. p. 71. ISBN 9780802824851. Retrieved 15 December 2012.